a truck crashes into a propane tank causing a house to erupt into flames in cleveland county. an elderly couple inside when it happened were inside and were killed. the driver thomas pruitt of king's mountain was traveling on east stagecoach trail when he veered on to the shoulder of the roadway. 74-year-old and 76-year-old nay ohmmy newton were able to eggs scape but died from their injuries. steve ohnesorge joins us live from the scene. take us through what the scene looking like today. >> it's been a difficult situation for everybody involved. stagecoach trail has a curve and what happened about 10:30 a truck came through without making the curve. no skid marks no sign of him trying to stop. went barreling through the fence here into the house and hitting

started leaking and the truck caught fire and there was a small explosion and other people came to try to help. then there was a huge explosion that happened and at that point authorities believe that is what caused the situation that killed the elderly couple. people did try to save them but it wasn't to be. this devastation here an entire community is feeling this and feel the pain of this. investigators are still working on this case and it will take them time to get everything done. >> is the driver facing charges here? >> well, the investigation is continuing. and troopers tell me they will put everything together they were doing measurements and talking to more people. they are going to put all of that together and give it to the district attorney's office and let the folks there decide if there's going to be charges and that could come in the next day or two. >> just incredible pictures.

in cleveland county, thank you. >> a 14-year-old student accused of opening fire in an ohio school cafeteria in butler county. two students hit and two hurt as they tried to get away. the suspect ran from the school and threw the gun down. deputies arrested him. investigators not revealing the motive. the school believes all of those hurt will be ok. >> charlotte police officers say he was arrested. lieu willwill you wiz is charged with felony hit-and-run. he hit and killed a pedestrian at 2:30 this morning. perez ramirez called 9-1-1 and said someone moved his van from his parking spot. officers arrested him when they realized it was the vehicle involved in the crash.

giles he is live in the alert center with this guy who got away from police custody near a hospital, alex? >> yes, that is the case. we have video from the scene we can show you. this happened on south kings drive near the happen. this man was in custody and escaped. he was receiving treatment at the hospital. and said he had cutoff an ankle monitor. and the man escaped from the hospital and took off on foot but caught on kings drive. an officer had to chase him down and tackle him. we are working to learn more about who the person is. >> thank you. >> the next big moment in campaign 2016 is hours away. super tuesday is tomorrow and the candidates are busy as the steaks rise. also ramping up controversy surrounding donald trump. this time it involves a white supremacist.

duke publicly supported him. >> i know nothing about david duke and white supremacists. >> today he said he had a bad earpiece and did not understand the question and does not want duke's support. the g.o.p. opponents are using this to launch new attacks. and the controversy bringing democrats closer together. bernie sanders tweeted quote america's first black president cannot and will not be succeeded by a hate monger who refuses to condemn the kkk and a dozen states will head to the polls tomorrow. >> we have a health warning this afternoon another case of mumps confirmed in mecklenberg county. a student at unc charlotte. university leaders say the student lives off campus and is isolation at home. the health department says there are three cases of mums in the county and more more possible cases. a health concern for parents,

leaders confirm that covenant day school closed because of they virus days after another charlotte school had to close. wbtv's steve crump joining us live now with the latest. >> and brigida, the word we got from the mecklenberg county health department this afternoon is that school was closed because there were so many staff and faculty members who were sick they believe with that virus. now, health officials are hoping to be at the place of learning tomorrow to conduct tests. however, there may be a problem that we are told in many instances when the tests are carried out, the my russ left the body and tests from places like covenant school may come back negative. however, the health department plans on moving forward. the health officials do take what happened most seriously and that is why they are trying to get answers as it relates to the recent cases. steve crump wbtv on your side. >> thank you.

after police say he was arrested at a gastonia elementary school. 32-year-old treasure ron lewis went to the elementary school to pick up his girlfriend's children. he is charged with failing to register as a sex offender and being on a child's premises. >> and turning to weather. what a beautiful day to start off the work week. it does not hurt it's a monday it makes it easily. >> a little bit. it does. >> everyone is in such a good mood. >> warm temperatures can it last? >> it is still february. it will be march tomorrow. right now it is beautiful outside. it feels nothing like february. of course, this is the 29th of february. this is not typical anything. we have clear skies and a couple of thin clouds passing through from your camera from the lansdown elementary school. we have clear skies it's been beautiful all day long and we

nothing like we had last week. most areas maybe 5-15-mile-per-hour winds in the afternoon and dying down overnight. look at the numbers. 73 in charlotte. 72 in gastonia. 74 in wadesboro. 71 in salisbury. 71 in morganton and boone 57 . and through the evening hours temperatures fall slowly. upper 50s by 7:00 p.m. and 55 your 9:00 p.m. temperature. we have one more mild day and how warm it gets and how long it will stay aaround. tonya, we will send it to you. >> as we check on i-85 pie statesville that is a lot of volume on the northbound side an earlier accident at sugar creek road at 95 north had two lanes closed and it created the congestion and it's starting to clear out. no major problems but it did

i-77 north headed to i-85 northbound. and one accident and it may be clearing out at north tryon. the plaza is a great alternate route. back to you. >> we are just getting started here. a crash caught on camera that appears to destroy a car involved. >> but amazingly the people inside survive.

these a terrifying collision caught on camera and the amazing part... no one was seriously hurt. >> watch the silver car. a red dump truck push it is through the intersection and forcing it to collide with another car and plow through a cop crete barrier. and check out the aftermath. all four people are expected to be ok. the truck driver saying he does not know how he lost control but when you think about how quickly that could have gone a different

different story today. >> kept pushing and pushing. was he braking? strange stuff. you've seen young kids act as ball boys but these ball dogs were on hand for a game of fetch. shelter dogs helped out at the brazil open tournament. the problem they were not great at returning the tennis balls. please, please. a shelter hopes the dogs would get people interested in adopting rescued dogs. hopefully that was accomplished. >> but the fetching the balls. they were all slobbered on. >> all right. >> good effort. >> this next story, gosh, three 12-year-old girls accused of trying to poison their teacher. >> we will tell you what they did and why investigators believe they were pulling off a revenge plot. >> and right now we have beautiful conditions outside.

and we have one more mild day and then things change in a big way. we have a big temperature drop

i have the forecast after the new developments in the killing of virginia college students and alex giles has new information. >> we got this in the past 30 minutes. the suspect is going to plead guilty according to officials.

was a former hospital worker. this was announced today. he is due in court on wednesday. he is charged with murder in the deaths of 18-year-old hannah graham and morgan harrington both students in virginia who disappeared. without taking the plea he could face the death penalty if he had been convicted and it had gone to trial. back to you. >> thank you. >> felony charges that is what three 12-year-olds are facing after their teacher says the girls spiked her drink in retaliation. the students are in the juvenile detention center? florida. in an act of revenge two girls poured crushed red pepper flakes into their teacher's drink while another distracted her. they were upset one had been sent to the principal's office for dumping flu into a backpack and suspicion of stealing a laptop.

throat, stomach pains. >> the deputy says a 23-year-old security officer is not the state agent he claimed to be. now we are learning this may not be the first time he pulled a stunt like this. zachary civiles was arrested on two counts of impersonating an officer. there were similar incidents between october and december. >> time is 4:17 we will check in with our tonya rivens. she is keeping an eye on the roads. hey, brigida, good afternoon. your first alert traffic is sponsored by people's bank. let's check in here we have a swaghts at eastway and independence creating a little bit of volume in the area. as we check around the area as we have independence and eastway drive. use caution. monroe road is a great alternate route. and in addition volume on independence. although it's not showing on the dot camera. we are showing headed eastbound two to three miles of stop-and-go traffic.

lake drive that right lane is blocked. monroe road is a better alternate route to get around that. to the dot camera, construction by independence boulevard but volume between albemarle road back towards center city. back to you guys. >> thank you. beautiful outside today. >> it is. >> maybe that ground-hog got it right. >> perhaps we can hope and dream. it makes starting the week off easier. knowing that it's beautiful. it's not yucky outside but we are wondering will it stick around? meteorologist leigh brock is in the first alert weather center. >> i think we all know the answer to that. even if we do not want to think about it. but we have rain in the forecast. and most of it will fall overnight. a couple nights. there is something. and right now it is absolutely gorgeous. clear from our hd towercam a beautiful afternoon and one of those afternoons it feels nice out there, too.

73 in charlotte. 71 in statesville. 70 hickory. 71 rock hill and 72 in rockingham. well above average. we should be in the 50s. and we are warmer than yesterday. and yesterday upper 60s yesterday. and still most areas are from 5 to almost 8 warmer now than we were yesterday. let's look at the satellite-radar. there is absolutely nothing to show you and that is why i wanted to show you that to make sure you are enjoying this february weather. it's very atypical. in the morning tomorrow not bad. 46 by 8:00 a.m. no chance of precipitation. southeasterly breeze at 2-miles-per-hour. a nice start to the day. and we have a cold front that is moving through, right now it's moving through the area. and that is going to be pushing through. month rain associated with it. and little temperature change associated with it.

system that will change things up. tomorrow high pressure off to the south and east pulling our wind out of the south, southwest and that takes the temperatures up to the 60s. and the low pressure system will come in late on tuesday. we may see a shower as early as late afternoon tomorrow into the early evening hours. most falls overnight into wednesday morning. and the forecast 66 on tuesday. late afternoon to evening hours, we have a temperature of 68 on tuesday. 58 on wednesday. after the front moves through. and maybe morning showers and drying it out after that for wednesday. and evening showers thursday. and rain thursday night into friday morning and it moves back out. and we are dry heading into the weekend and more 60s by the end of next weekend. more in just a little bit. >> all right. appreciate it. violence erupts in uptown charlotte near 50 rounds of ammunition were fired and you can see the results here on this van. we are asking police what is

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>> time for your "daily detour" oscars edition. here we go. >> so many big moments but host chris rock's opening monologue addressing the white controversy

need equal opportunity he called it the white people's choice awards and and quipped if they nominated hosts he with not get the job and he said he thought about quitting but the last thing i need is to lose another job to kevin hart. and this no black nominee thing happened 71 other times. that was a direct quote. a lot of others and same we can say and pass on. but you know, a lot of people saying he went too far and that is what chris rock does. >> absolutely. and think of the pressure he was under? i think he was nervous and then he got into it. and then, yeah, i think he made good points. the curse been for leonardo dicaprio last night.

as oscar for his role in the revenant and best actress brie larson. and spotlight best picture and sam smith won for his song writings on the wall. the theme from the latest bond film specter. >> yep. so you know, probably all know this but all black people do not look alike. someone needs to tell the social media team at total beauty.com. the website tweeted out this photo that is whoppi with the caption we had no idea opera was tatted and we love it. the posts lied for 45 minutes. while we called out the brand and the site wrote... >> i don't know now in the world that happened but that was

mention one performance lady ga-ga, the rape survivor gave an emotional performance until it happens to you. writtenning for the documentary about campus rape and she was joined by survivors of sexual assault. wow. joe biden introduced ga-ga and the crowd gave them standing occasions. >> that gave me chills. >> really powerful. more news ahead caught on camera an armed robbery suspect flees the scene of a local business. >> what he wanted and how much

you're >> announcer: wbtv on your side. wbtv news starts right now. >> the images are stunning like something that you would see in an action film. bullet holes covering the side of a van after a shooting in uptown charlotte. welcome back i'm jamie boll. >> i'm brigida mack. thank you for joining us. first at 4:00 these three men scheduled to appear in court tomorrow. police arrested them after two vehicles and a hotel lobly hit in a hail of but lets. the shots fired near the sky condominiums or south caldwell street. the good news is no one was hurt but one of the men was carrying an ak47 in uptown and dedrick

dedrick is there a link between this and the ciaa tournament? >> well, all police are saying right now is the suspects they were in town for the ciaa not sure in what capacity. but this shooting has manied many concerned. and look the the damage. a van full of bullet holes, 40-50 rounds. the crime happened blocks away from police headquarters and that may be one reason why the suspects were quickly caught. here is what we know... a transit officer heard the gunshots and that officer got the license tag number of the suspect's car. once that information was turned in police received it and they spotted the car and stopped it. once that car was stopped the suspect ran out of the car away with the ak47 in his hands but police caught him without incident. city leaders say more work needs

but this shooting should not taint the ciaa being in charlotte. >> some things we cannot control and a lot of time that is citizens behavior and these were out of town guests coming to participate in a successful tournament here in the charlotte. >> those suspects too, are from member 23eus, tennessee area and one from south carolina. the suspects have been released from jail while soon leaders will come together to figure out what next steps need to happen to tighten up security during ciaa week. we talked to a victim inside one of the two cars, and she told me she is happy that she is alive on this day. we will have more coming up new on wbtv news at 6:00. for now, we are live in uptown, dedrick russell wbtv on your side. >> see you at 6:00. thank you. >> more breaking news coming